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Newbie - Can't see a thing


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Just got a Meade 114EQ-Astr. I set it up and brought it outside, but no matter what I am not able to make anything out though it, all I see is gray. I have a red dot site on it, and even when I point it at the moon I don't see a thing. I have been able to focus on closer things such as leaves on a tree across the street, but nothing in the sky. Any help is great appreciated.

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Welcome to SGL.

What eyepiece are you using with the scope ? - you should always start off with the lowest power one and don't bother with any barlow or erecting lenses at the moment.

Is the red dot finder aligned pretty much exactly with the main scope ? - you need a pretty distant object to do this eg: a church spire a mile or two away ?.

The focus position for astro objects will be a long way inwards from the one for the tree across the street.

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Welcome to the SGL Forum.

You're not the first person who has difficulty with their first telescope. I am not familiar with that particular telescope, but I think you will have two eyepieces with it. One is 25mm and the other 9 mm. Just concentrate on the 25 mm to start with. If you can focus on a tree, then do so, but then leave the focuser in that position. Come night, and if the sky is clear, find a bright object in the sky. The best candidates tonight, will be the moon and Jupiter.

Jupiter will be available to you first, as the moon will rise quite late, probably early morning, as it now on the wane, and is way round the earth in it's orbit. However, The brightest starlike object you will see, is the bright planet Jupiter, You can't mistake it in the south It is very bright. Move your telescope, and using your finder scope, try to get the planet in your main scope. You will see a lot of light in the eyepiece. Keep it in view by adjusting the slow motion control, and gently turn the focus knob clockwise to take the focuser in towards the telescope. Do this slowly, and the light will gradually change to reveal the disc of jupiter. The size of your scope means the planet will not look very big, but you should also see some of jupiters Galilean moons, maybe all four of them, they will be either both sides of the planet, depending at what position they are in their orbits around Jupiter. Those positions change continuously, but slowly, you will not be able to perceive that movement.

I hope this helps you get started.

Good Luck

Ron:)

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Just another point to make which will affect your scopes performance. Hopefully it will have came collimated. Which means the mirror at the bottom of the tube, has to line up with the smaller mirror at the top end of the tube. If you remove your eyepiece, and look into the focuser, you should see reflections of the main mirror, the secondary mirror, and the supports that hold the secondary in place. As a rough assessment, what you should see, ar all these reflection all looking symmetrical to your eye. If it looks pretty askey, the liklihood is, the mirror/s have been taken out of alignment during transportation to you.

Just something for you to be aware of. Collimation is something you need to learn to do.

There is a great tutorial on the subject by Astro_Baby, and you will do well to read it, and if there is anything you don't understand, then don't be shy, just ask.

Ron.

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OK this might sound daft, but it's caught me out before.

Since you can focus on nearby things (well, relatively speaking) but not on things further away, is the eyepiece fully seated in the eyepiece holder?

The metal tube where the eyepiece sits will have one or two thumbscrews that you're supposed to tighten against the neck of the eyepiece to stop it falling out when you have the 'scope pointed high up. If the screw is already screwed in a bit, it might be stopping the eyepiece from slotting all the way into its holder.

Try loosening the screw(s), then plopping the eyepiece in - make sure it goes all the way in, then tighten up the thumbscrews. See if your "near" focus is at the same point as it was before.

Also, it's worth using daylight to set up the alignment of your finder, using a well-illuminated object.

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